Congratulations to the Winners!

Congratulations to Zupplers, winners of Normal Mode, and plugh,
winners of Hard Mode!

What Happened

The "press release" that kicked everything off:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BROOKLINE, MA -- The Brookline Archaeological and Paleo-Historical
Library (BAPHL) has found a puzzling journal tentatively dated from
the early 20th century. The leather-bound journal was found in the
corner of the stockroom at the well-known local bookstore Brookline
Booksmith.

"The book itself is in good condition but the entire text is written
in some sort of code that we haven't been able to crack," said BAPHL
chairman James Tyndall. "We don't know who wrote it or what's inside."

BAPHL is therefore calling on puzzle solvers to help them figure out
the contents of this mysterious journal. Because of the possibly
sensitive nature of the contents, all teams of solvers are asked to
register at the BAPHL's website, www.baphl.org. The journal will
undergo further forensic testing at the BAPHL underground laboratory,
and will be released to registered solvers on May 14th, 2011.

Hmm, fishy.

Upon arriving, each team was given an envelope with puzzle pieces in
it. (Due to punts and mergers, some teams were given more than one.)
Putting together the puzzle pieces revealed an even larger puzzle
piece, which would have to be combined with the other teams' puzzle
pieces to form a message that also had an encryption key running
around the border.

After that, BAPHL announced that they would be able to start
decrypting the rest of the journal pages, and handed out puzzles 1 and
2. Upon solving one of those, teams would receive puzzles 3 and 4,
and then upon solving any of the three open puzzles, they would
receive the walkaround puzzle.

Teams would not receive any more puzzles until finishing The
Great Work Begins, even if they solved additional puzzles. Upon
solving it, teams would be told to meet a BAPHL representative
somewhere in the area. The member of BAPHL would tell them that they
had begun the summoning ritual for an extradimensional being known as
"The Bright One" that BAPHL had been studying for years. BAPHL
intends to tame that being and use its vast powers to rule the earth,
mwahahahaha.

Simultaneously with the in-person meeting, a member of the BAPHL
Resistance would call the team and give them the other side of the
story: that the Bright One was a demon named Baphlupagus who could not
be controlled. There is hope, though: the final summoning ritual
could be inverted to close the way and prevent Baphlupagus from
emerging into the world.

Teams would have to make a choice at this point: save the world, or
help destroy it? Once they chose, they were given the next two
puzzles to resume the hunt.

Depending on the decision they made, teams would receive either the
Ritual of Summoning (destroy) or the Ritual of Banishing (save). The
Ritual of Banishing additionally required all of the answers to be
modified before using them in the metapuzzle. And then, they would be
sent to a final location to finish the appropriate ritual.

The ritual of summoning would culminate with the
portal (a backpack) opening up and then Baphlupagus emerging... as a
stuffed animal. Apparently someone sealed him away a long time ago
and never bothered to tell the cult. Oops.

The ritual of banishing would culminate with the BAPHL Resistance
member putting the finishing touches on the ritual, but gaping in
horror as the portal began to open anyway... to reveal Baphlupagus
sealed away in the body of a stuffed animal. Presumably you didn't
get it quite right, but close enough.

Credits

BAPHL 3 was brought to you by team Yes!!!!!, consisting of esteemed occultists: